The present invention pertains to a fenceliner for retarding or preventing the growth of grass, weeds or like vegetation below or along the sides of a fence. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a fenceliner, preventing the growth of vegetation around a fence, which fenceliner can be installed with a minimum of effort and a minimum number of tools under an existing fence or under a fence as the fence is being installed. The fenceliner also inhibits small animals from crawling or burrowing under the fence.
After erection or placement of a fence, the strips of ground immediately beneath and closely adjacent to the opposite sides of the fence are inaccessible to conventional lawn mowers, making it necessary to trim such areas by hand or with a trimmer tool or to leave such areas uncut. U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,373 discloses a fence trim guard and points out that any vegetation growing in the areas underneath or adjacent to the fence must be trimmed by hand. The fence trim guard of that patent has a plurality of paired, telescopically interlocking guard members adapted to overlie the ground underneath the fence, between the fence posts. Installation of each guard member requires digging under the fence to embed each of a pair of outwardly extending lateral flanges underneath the ground to anchor the trim guard.
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,351 it is also known to construct a grass guard device having inherent spring tension for biasing the fence guard upwardly against the wire paneling of the fence. This grass guard, however, is designed for installation along the fence line before the fence is completely erected to ensure that the spacing between the fence posts substantially corresponds to the spacing between the slots through the grass guard.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,989 discloses a fence guard having an elongated fence guard with an elongated slot in the middle to receive the bottom of the fence. The fence guard is assembled during construction of the fence such that the cooperating swivel joints and corner post plates, provided to maintain the continuity of the fence guard receive the fence posts prior to application of the fence panel. The various types and the complexity of the joints and plates results in a fence guard that is difficult to install and expensive to manufacture.